Question

Produce a report outlining how SIX SIGMA has influenced quality management and how the selected approach helps organisations address contemporary issues in quality management.

The main part of the report should be divided into five parts, in the following order.

1. The significance of the quality approach a.

A brief explanation of the quality approach being examined and how it builds on what went before.

b. What was the perceived limitation of previous approaches to quality management that the approach offered a solution to?

c. How important was it that this gap was addressed?

2. The strengths and advantages of the quality approach

a. Identify and explain the strengths of the approach and the advantages that it brings for organisations, employees and customers

. b. Explain whether these advantages are conditional on any particular resources or contexts.

c. Is the approach suitable for all types of organisation, or some more than others? If so, which organisations does it particularly suit?

3. Examples of organisations using the quality approach

a. Identify and discuss at least two examples of the approach in use. Reviews of individual organisations will ideally cover organisations whose experience is worth knowing about for some particular reason (for example, they demonstrated the importance of the approach or advanced the methods associated with the approach).

b. Discuss any lessons learnt about how organisations can make the best use of the approach.

4. Critical evaluation of the quality approach

a. Provide a critical evaluation of the approach.

b. Has the approach proved to be as significant as expected? If not, why not?

c. Are there people who criticise the approach? If so, what are their concerns and are these concerns justified?

d. Are there any disadvantages to using this approach?

5. Contribution to contemporary business issues

a. Discuss how the approach contributes to helping organisations address contemporary quality management concerns. For example:

i. How does the approach fit with the increasingly globalised world in which many businesses operate?

ii. Does the approach assist organisations to demonstrate their commitment to high ethical standards and business responsibility?

iii. Does the approach help organisations satisfy customer expectations at a time of growing consumer choice? Is the approach relevant to a digital economy as well as old-fashioned manufacturing?

Recommendations You should make at least two specific recommendations concerning what you think should be done to:

improve the contribution the approach can make to quality management

advise organisations on what to consider when contemplating adopting the approach. These recommendations should follow from the discussion in your analysis.

Conclusion ( word limit 4000)

Answer 1

As a protocol , iwill be answering only four sub parts please.

Six sigma methodology

a). Brief discription-Six Sigma (6σ) is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was introduced by engineer Bill Smith while working at Motorola in 1986. Jack Welch made it central to his business strategy at General Electric in 1995.

It seeks to improve the quality of the output of a process by identifying and removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, mainly empirical, statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has specific value targets, for example: reduce process cycle time, reduce pollution, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits.

Six Sigma is a method that provides organizations the tools to improve the capability of their business processes. This increase in performance and decrease in process variation lead to defect reduction and improvement in profits, employee morale, and quality of products or services. Six Sigma quality is a term generally used to indicate that a process is well controlled (within process limits ±3s from the center line in a control chart, and requirements/tolerance limits ±6s from the center line).Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects (driving toward six standard deviations between the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process – from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service.

b). Limitations of other methodologies that led to implementation of six sigma -

1). Other processes did not focus on variability.

2). Customer focus was not primary

3). PDCA (plan-Do-Check-Act) is not internalized in the process

4). not dependent ottally on data only.

5). Lacks versatality and lacks the structured implementation procedure

6). Lacks organisational support and methodology commitment

7). Lacks optimization of resources.

8). Lacks total quality management approach

9). does not attack on cost optimization

10). Lacks proactive approach.

c). six sigma tries to resolve the above mentioned disadvantages.The main advantage of Six Sigma compared to other approaches to quality control is that Six Sigma is customer driven. Six Sigma is defined as a limit of 3.4 defects per one million products or service processes, where anything not acceptable to the end customer is considered a defect. Six Sigma addresses the entire process behind the production of an item or completion of a service, rather than just the final outcome. It is proactive rather than reactive, as it sets out to determine how improvements can be made even before defects or shortcomings are found.

the above mentioned gaps were important to be addressed as it gives:-

1). total involvment of all resources

2). Data driven apporach

3). total quality management

4). flexible solution aimed at daily managment

5). Customer centricity

d). ADvantages of Six Sigma

Advantages:

• stuctured way of solving quality and time related problems
• Measurable improvements due to its data-driven approach
• Strong focus on cause and effect analysis
• Several tools to define, measure, analyze, improve and control
• Cost reduction ,Cost of poor quality is marginalized.
• Quality imporvement without addition of any extra infrastructure.
• Strategy and competitive advantage
• Sustenance of results/performance
• Effective Creation and Utilization of Knowledge